Strip club loses claim against GTA creators

A strip club's lawsuit against the creators of the Grand Theft Auto video games has been brutally squashed by the US Court of Appeals.

The owners of the Play Pen strip club in east Los Angeles, ESS Entertainment, sued Rock Star Games over a depiction of a strip club in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The computer game strip club, called the Pig Pen, used a number of elements from the real-life Play Pen, including a similar logo and the phrase "Totally Nude" on the front of the building.

The club's owners argued that Rock Star had used the Play Pen trademark without permission, possibly confusing punters about whether the strip club had actually endorsed the game.

They also argued that their strip club had little or no cultural significance, and was therefore not a fair target for parody or cultural reference.

But the judges who reviewed the case rejected the lawsuit on grounds of free speech and artistic merit.

"It is "¦ true that Play Pen has little cultural significance, but the same could be said about most of the individual establishments in East Los Angeles," the judgement said.

"Like most urban neighborhoods, its distinctiveness lies in its 'look and feel', not in particular destinations as in a downtown or tourist district.

"In this context, we conclude that to include a strip club that is similar in look and feel to the Play Pen does indeed have at least 'some artistic relevance'."

The judges were particularly scathing about claims that players could somehow believe that the strip club was behind the game.

"Both San Andreas and the Play Pen offer a form of lowbrow entertainment; besides this general similarity, they have nothing in common.

"The San Andreas Game is not complementary to the Play Pen; video games and strip clubs do not go together like a horse and carriage or, perish the thought, love and marriage.

"Nothing indicates that the buying public would reasonably have believed that ESS produced the video game or, for that matter, that Rockstar operated a strip club.

"Undeterred, ESS also argues that, because players are free to ignore the storyline and spend as much time as they want at the Pig Pen, the Pig Pen can be considered a significant part of the Game, leading to confusion.

"But fans can spend all nine innings of a baseball game at the hot dog stand; that hardly makes Dodger Stadium a butcher's shop."

The strip club's lawsuit was first rejected by a US district court in August 2006.